John Wesley Hardin
John Wesley Hardin was a post Civil War outlaw and killer. Some sources claim he committed over forty murders although contempaorty newspaper accounts of his 1877 arrest credit him with only ''twenty-seven. background Born May 26, 1853 in Bonham Texas the son of the Rev Joseph "Gip" Hardin and Mary Elizabeth Dixson the second of ten children. His brother Joseph "Gip" Hardin was three years older. The Hardins were Southerns and politcially promient. His great-grandfather was North Carolina provincial Congressman Colonel Joseph Hardin the father of Congressman Martin D. Hardin of Ky and grandfather of Congressman John J. Hardin; relataives included Congressman Benjamin Hardin and Colonel John Hardin of Virgina 1861 Introduction to violence In 1861 according to his own account Hardin's first exposure to violence came when a man named Turner Evans was stabbed by a John Rauff. Evans died of his injuries and Evans spent a few years in jail. Hardin later wrote '..Readers you see what drink and passion will do. If you wish to be successful in life, be temperate and control your passions; if you don't ruin and death is the result." In view of how Hardin's life would end, this was an unintentional irony on his part. In 1862 at the age of nine Hardin tried to run off and join the Rebel army. 1867-1869 In 1867 a schoolmate named Charles Sloter claimed Hardin wrote a bit of doggeral about a local girl on a schoolboard. Hardin denied doing so and Sloter tried to stab Hardin with a knife. Hardin in his turn stabbed Sloter with his own knife and was almost expelled from school. In 1868 at Moscow Texas Hardin enguaged in a wrestling match with a ex slave named Mage who had belonged to Judge Holshoven-a brother of Hardin's aunt. Hardin beat Mage and scratched his face. Hardin later claimed that he meet Mage near a creekbed and after the man shook a stick at him and cursed him, Hardin shot and mortally wounded Mage with a pistol. Hardin claimed that when three yankee soldiers tried to arrest him, he ambushed them at crossing at Hickory Creek, Logallis Prairie-now Nogalus Texas {About 25 miles north of Sumpter, Texas} with a shotgun and pistol and killed all three. Locals hid the victiums in the creekbed about 100 yards from the ambush. Although offical records of the Fifth Military District for Texas and Louisiana do not confirm Hardin's account of these murders, there is some confirmation that Hardin ''did commit murders here in that about eighty years later human bones were found in the creekbed; however the identity of the victiums are unknown. In 1869 Hardin fled to Pisguah, Navarro County Texas and teamed up with an outlaw named Frank Polk. Polk had killed a man named Tom Brady and Union soldiers sent out from Corsicana Texas to arrest both Polk and Hardin. Hardin escaped but Polk was captured; he was later killed September 23, 1878 after killing Wortham Texas City marshal Charles Powers. In Pisguah Hardin taught school for three months but deceided to learn the cattle trade and playing poker. Once to win a bet of a bottle of whiskey-which he collected years later-he shot a mans eye out with a pistol. 1870-1871 On January 5, 1870-''not'' December 1869-in Towash, Hill County Texas Hardin was playing cards with Benjamin-''not'' Jim-Bradley and a Judge Moore who held Hardin's stakes in the game. The outcome was that Hardin shot and killed Bradley and Moore "vanished". {An 1877 account claims Hardin admitted killing two men in Hill County; Hardin was indiated in October 1873 for Bradley's killing but never tried}. On January 20, 1870 in Horn Hill, Limestone County Texas Hardin killed a circus rastabout and about a week later killed a man in Kosse Texas. On January 9, 1871 in Harrison County Texas Hardin was arrested by Constable E.T. Stakes and 12 citizens on four murder charges and one horse theft charge. He was inprisioned in Marshall Texas where he secretly purchased a pistol and a overcoat. Hardin was being taken back to Waco Texas on a charge of having killed Waco Town Marshal Laban John Hoffman January 6, 1871 {a charge he denied committing} in the company of Captain Stakes and Texas State Policeman John Smalley. On Janaury 20, 1871 when Stakes was foraging, Hardin killed Smalley and escaped. {Up to November 13, 1872, the Grand Jury of Freestone County, Texas had not filed an indictment against Hardin for the killing of Smalley {Daily Democratic Statesman August 30, 1877}. He later claimed to have been arrested by three men named Smith; Jones and Davis-but escaped again after killing them in Bell County Texas. {This last triple killing is not confirmed} In February 1871 when Hardin deceided to enter the cattle trade (and reportably cattle rustling as well} he became a trail boss. When a freeman named Bob King ignored Hardin order not to cut out a beef cow, Hardin hit him over the head with a pistol. Hardin then got into a argument with three mexicans over a three card Monte game in which he hit one over the head with a pistol; shot one man in the arm and shot the third through the lung. On the cattle trail Hardin claimed to be in two gunfights with Indians-when a Indian tried to collect a "tax" on the cattle, Hardin shot him and then had the body buried to avoid retrobution from the man's tribe; in the second incident Hardin shot a Indian who Hardin claimed had stolen a silver bridle from him and then forced a war party to flee . In June 1871 Hardin claimed in a gunfight that he killled a Mexican trail boss named Hosea and five other vaqueros when the Mexicans tried to mix their herd with Hardins. In fact according to a contemporaty newspaper account, only three Mexicans were killed in Park City, Shedgwick County Kansas. {Saline County Journal June 8, 1871} On arrival in Abeline Kansas Hardin claimed to be friends with City Mashal James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickcock-even after Hardin outdrew the celebrated gunfighter. However Hardin had to leave Abeline twice after shooting incidents- the first time was a gunfight in a Abeline resturtrant when Hardin and a companion named Pain were involved in a gunfight with a anti Texan; the result was that Pain was shot in his one arm while Hardin shot the anti-Texan in the mouth with the bullet exiting under his left ear (Although there are no contemporary newspaper accounts of this shooting, there is partical confimation in a 1924 account of Texas cattleman, George N. Steen, who reported that in Abeline "...While we were there one night, a man was drinking at a bar in a saloon, and somebody fired in from outside, the bullet striking him in the mouth and instantly killing him...; from the "The Trail Drivers of Texas, Part One"; 1924; J. Marvin HUnter; .p.140}. On July 4, 1871, a Texas trail Boss named William Cohron was killed on the Cottonwood trail 40 miles south of Abeline by a Mexican who south fled but was killed in a Sumpter City, Sumpter County Kansas resturant by Hardin on July 20, 1871 {This is one of the several killings by Hardin that can be confirmed. See Abilene Chronicle Agust 17, 1871} It is also mentioned in the Steen account although his chronology is somewhat confused-he mentions the killing of a Abeline "policeman" by James Hickcock as happening before the saloon shooting; in fact the accidental death of Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams by Hickcock occured October 5, 1871 }. The second Incident involving Hardin was while he was staying in the Abeline American House Hotel when on August 6, 1871 he shot through the wall and killed a guest named Charles Couger who was reading a newspaper in bed. Hardin later claimed he was shooting at a man in his room who was either trying to rob him or stab him with a knife; however contemporary newspaper accounts do not confirm Hardin's claim. A Coroner's Jury found Hardin-under his alias of Wesley Clements-guilty of killing Couger. {Abilene Chronicle August 10, 1871} A garbled version of this killing apparently gave rise to the story that Hardin once shot a man for snoring too loud. Hardin later claimed that 35 miles from Abeline at a Cowboy camp that he ambushed lawman Tom Carson and two Depuites-but he did not kill them; he only humilited them by forcing them to remove all their clothing and walk back to Abeline. On October 6, 1871 Texas State Policemen Green Paramore and John Lackey tried to arrest Hardin on Gonzales Texas; Hardin killed Paramore and wounded Lackey. Hardin later claimed to have killed four men after this shooting; when a Africain Amerian posse from Austin came after him for Paramore killing, he forced them to flee after killing three of them and when about 45 miles outside Corpus Christi, Texas he was being followed by two Mexicans, and that he shot one off his horse while the other "quit the fight." {This last four killings are not confirmed}. 1872 In June 1872, at Willis, Texas, Hardin claimed that some men tried to arrest him for carrying a pistol "...but they got the contents instead."; pp. 63-65. On July 26, 1872 Hemphill Texas, Hardin wounded Texas State Policeman John Henry Hopkins "Sonny" Speights-whom Hardin called "Spites"- in the shoulder. In August 1872 Hardin was wounded by a shotgun blast in a Trinity, Texas gambling dispute by Phil Sublett, after he had lost money to Hardin in a poker game. He later claimed that in September 1872 in Trinity Texas that he either killed one of two Texas State Policemen that came after him or drove them away. Hardin only killed two Texas State Policemen {Smalley and Paramore} but was indiated for an August 1872 murder in Trinity County. In September 1872 Hardin surrendered to Sheriff Reagan of Cherokee County, Texas, but escaped in October 1872. On November 19, 1872, Hardin, despite a guard of six men, mysteriously escaped from the sheriff of Gonzales County, Texas. A reward of $100.00 was offered for his re-capture. 1873-1874 Sutton-Taylor Feud During this period occured the Sutton-Taylor feud; Hardin was related and allied to the Taylor family. On May 15, 1873, Jim Cox and Jake Christman were killed by the Taylor faction at Tomlinson Creek. Hardin, having by then recovered from the injuries from Sublett's attack, admitted that there were reports that he had led the fights in which these men were killed, but would neither confirm nor deny his involvement: "...but as I have never pleaded to that case, I will at this time have little to say."; p. 81 In Cuero, Texas in May 1873, Hardin killed J.B. Morgan, who reportably served under Dewitt County Sheriff, Jack Helms (a former captain in the Texas State Police). Helms was alligned with the Suttons. On May 17, 1873 in Albuquerque, Wilson County Texas, Hardin and Jim Taylor killed Sherriff Jack Helms. Hardin was apparently indiated for this murder in July 1873. On June 17, 1873 Hardin broke his brother-in-law Joshua "Brown" Bowen out of the Gonzales County Jail. Bowen was charged with the killing of Thomas Holderman December 17, 1872-a killing for which hardin was implicated as well. The feud culminated with Jim and Bill Taylor gunning down Billy Sutton and Gabriel Slaughter as they waited on a steamboat platform, in Indianola, Texas on March 11, 1874, as the two were planning to leave the area for good. Hardin admitted in his biography that he and his brother Joseph had been involved along with both Taylors in Sutton's killing page|86-87. In revenge the Suttons lynched three members of the Taylor fraction on June 22, 1874 in Dewitt County Texas-John Alfred "Kute" Tuggle; Rufus P. "Scrap" Taylor and James White. On May 1, 1874, while he was in Gainesville, Florida.Hardin (under the alias of James W Swain} calimed that he had knocked a black man down and shot another during a disturbance outside the Alachua County jail. A black prisoner named "Eli" - who was held on a charge of attempted assault of a white woman - was killed when the jail was burned down by a mob. Hardin claimed to have been part of the mob as well as the county coroner, who afterward rendered a verdict that "Eli" had died after setting fire to the jail himself; "Hardin Autobiography"; p.110.{Although there are no contemporary accounts to confirm Hardin, the first Alachua County Jail was apparenly destroyed in the late 1870's} On May 26, 1874 in Commanche Texas, Hardin shot and killed Brown County Deputy Sherriff Charles Webb a former Texas Ranger. Two of Hardin's accomplices in the shooting were a cousin, Bud Dixson, and Jim Taylor.; p. 92. Hardin escaped but his parents were placed in protective custody while Joseph Hardin Jr and Bud and Tom Dixson were arrested on outstanding warrents; in July 1874 a mob lynched Joseph hardin jr and the dixson brothers. State seals were found to have been in Joseph hardin Jr possesion-apparenly he had forged Bills of Lading so as to help his brother sell stolen Texas cattle in Kansas. On July 1, 1874 Hardin claimed that after being trailed by 17 Texas Rangers that he drove them off after killing one of them. However this never happened-Hardin killed no Texas Rangers. Shortly afterward, Hardin and a new companion, Mac Young, were suspected of horse thievery, and were pursued by a posse near Bellville, in Austin County, Texas. Hardin pulled his pistols on Austin County Sheriff, Gustave Langhammer, but did not shoot him, while separately Young was arrested and fined $100 for carrying a pistol.; pp. 107-108. 1875-1877 On January 20, 1875 a reward of $4,000 was authorized by the Texas legislature for Hardin's arrest. Between April and November 1876 Hardin claimed in Jacksonville Florida he was tipped off by local law officers that the Pinkertons Detective Agency was after him and that on the Florida-Georgia Border he was involved in a gunfight with the Pinkerton "Gang" in which two of them were killed. This is not occur-the Pinkertons were never after John Wesley Hardin. In November 1876 on election night in Mobile Alabama Hardin claimed that he and an ex Jacksonville Policeman named Gus Kennedy were involved in a Saloon gunfight with Mobile Police in which one person was killed and two wounded and that although they were both arrested-they were soon freed. This did not occur-Hardin {under his alias of Swain} and Kennedy were arrested and driven out of town for gambling with a deck of marked cards! {Mobile Daily Register November 12, 1876} On August 24, 1877 in Pensacola Florida Hardin aka "James W. Swain" was captured on a train by Texas Rangers. A companion of Hardin named Mann who fired on the rangers was killed. Reportably just before his capture, two ex-slaves of his father "Jake" Menzel and Robert Borup, had tried to capture Hardin in Gainsville, Florida. Hardin killed one and blinded the other. The only crime Hardin was tried for was Deputy Sherriff Webb for which he was sentenced to the Hunstville State Prison for 25 years. A december 1877 account reports that besides Inditments for murder in Trinity, Comanche and Wilson Counties, Hardin was also indiated for assaualt with intent to murder in Navarona and Smith Counties Texas. {Daily Democratic Statesman August 30, 1877} 1894-1895 Hardin was released February 17, 1894 and pardoned March 16, 1894. On July 21, 1894 Hardin passed the Texas bar exam to become a lawyer. A account from 1900 claims Hardin committed his last murder after his release when to win a $5.00 bet he knocked a mexican off a box with a pistol shot. By this time he was a widower his wife Jane Bowen having died November 6, 1892 and he remarried again on January 9, 1895 to Carolyn "Callie" Lewis age 15; however they soon seperated. In July 1895 Hardin was fined $25.00 for gaming after using a pistol to get back $100.00 he had lost at El Paso Texas "Gem Saloon" some weeks before; his pistol was confiscated. In August 1895 El Paso Policeman John Selman Jr arrested Hardin's girlfriend M'Rose for branishing a gun in public. Hardin argued with both Selman and his father El Paso Constable John Selman Sr. After an arguement with the senior Selman August 19, 1895 Hardin went to shoot dice at the Acme Saloon. Selman Sr came up behind Hardin and shot him in the back of the head and through the chest. Hardin's last words were "Four Sixes to beat"; he is buried in El Paso Concorida Cemetery as is John Selman Sr who was killed in a gunfight with US Deputy marshall George Scarborough April 6, 1896. Among his papers Hardin's son found and published his father's autobiography "The Life of John Wesley Hardin written by Himself." In regard to Hardin's accomplices: *Joshua Bowen was hanged in May 1878 *Jim Taylor was killed January 1, 1875 in DeWitt County Texas *Bill Taylor was captured tried twice and then escaped and killed ex Cuero Texas Marshal Reuben Brown; he died about 1890 in Sonora Texas